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Sun Jul 27, 2008 11:39 pm

its been a week since i drove the car. i pull the car out of the garage and take out for a spin. two blocks later i hit this pot hole. the car makes this dragging noise and doesnt want to go. so i get the car moving on 1st and the grinding noise is still there. so i get out of the car to see if there's anything under the car. so i turn the car off and turn it back on and put in 1st and it just wont go anywhere. so i start pushing the car and it sounds like the brakes are grinding. so i get the car home and i start it and put in rev and struggles but it moves. i need some help please...

Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:49 am

stripped axle spline?

Mon Jul 28, 2008 9:01 am

Is that expensive

Mon Jul 28, 2008 9:54 am

how big was the pothole? how fast were you going?

Mon Jul 28, 2008 10:13 am

Hi,

Shouldn't be too hard to find what the problem is.
You know that you hit a pot hole with a particular wheel or side of the car.
You know that the pot hole did indeed cause the problem.

Jack up the car and take a look under that wheel or wheels. You'll see a dent or scraped paint or shiny metal from the impact.

Is the wheel bent?
Is the brake line smashed thus locking the wheel solid?
Is the axle bent?
So many possibilities but a careful look see should let you know a lot.

Unfortunately being able to see what you did isn't a feature we yet have here on Samba though if you hook up a video feed you could stream it to us.

If you are unsure of jacking an looking, have it towed to a shop that can look for you.

Dave

Mon Jul 28, 2008 11:12 am

the pot wasnt that deep and i wasnt going no more than 8mph.

Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:27 pm

maybe your clutch shattered at the same time that you hit the pothole.

Tue Jul 29, 2008 4:55 am

Cookieman,

Try this. Put some wooden blocks behind your front tires. Get your floor jack out and put like a 2 ft piece of 2x4 and jack the car straight up with that block under the beam right where the wishbone mounts up. Jack the car up and put your jackstands right in the middle of the torsion bar tubes, then let the car back down so the wheels are free to spin. Then block the front of the tires with more blocks. Now you'll be able to figure out where the noise is coming from.
Spin the wheels both ways (with the engine off, e-brake off of course, and trans in neutral) and listen. Any funny noises??? Wheels hard to turn?
Then start the engine up with it neutral and listen again. Then put it in gear and listen, like in first and then try reverse. Of course you'll be behind the car while someone else is doing the gear changes.
You may not want to try this procedure because it's not all that safe, but you'll get a good idea of where your noise is coming from, then you can report back here with what you've found for more considerations.

Tue Jul 29, 2008 9:22 am

thanks guys!!!